Think.Eat.Save Sydney could not have happened if it weren’t for the generosity of hundreds of supporters and volunteers who donated time, in-kind and food to the cause.

You might be asking how on earth we even begin to prepare and cook meals for thousands of people?

Our incredible Chef for Cause Travis Harvey led a number of equally awesome OzHarvest chefs and hundreds of volunteers to create this wonderful surplus menu. Check out the dishes. Who would have thought rescued food, could taste so good?

A full list of our incredible event supporters are acknowledged below. Thank you for caring about the cause! 

THINK.EAT.SAVE SYDNEY MENU ITEMS AND FOOD RESCUE STORIES

Mains:

• Surplus Vegetable Tagine served with Rescued Rice Pilaf created by OzHarvest Chef for a Cause Travis Harvey + OzHarvest volunteers
  • Generous donors from the Sydney Markets, local farms, Growers Markets have come together to unite against food waste and provided surplus vegetables for this steaming vegetable tagine.
  • Due to their cosmetic imperfections, size or shape – they were almost rejected and were otherwise destined for landfill – until OzHarvest rescued them.
  • These generous produce donors include: Murphy’s Produce, Profruit, Raymond Cameleri, Yep Lum, Export Fresh, Anthony Tesoriero, Fresh Fellas, Sao family, Olsson’s Salt, Sorbello, Moraitis, Highland Gourmet Potatoes as well as Herbie’s Spices, Cobram Estate, Pukara, Olsson’s Salt, Yalla, Salt.Meats.Cheese

Condiments:

• Rescued Carrot Dip – thank goodness for the Robot Coupe machines as we had 100kg of carrots to grate! This made the job a lot easier. What a tasty way to enjoy surplus carrots!
• Saved Eggplant Babaganouj by Chef and Ambassador Somer Sivrioglu – hundreds of kilos of eggplant were saved from landfill and transformed into an amazing rescued babaganouj by the wonderful Somer Sivrioglu. 
• Chapatti and Condiments – by Sydney Sikh Community
  • The Sikh community in Sydney has joined us in the fight against food waste. Using their combined hundreds of years of experience and expertise in making fresh chapatti to feed the masses, they will be demonstrating how easy it is to make this delicious traditional Indian bread, using flour that would have otherwise been destined for the bins.  They have also prepared a number of condiments to complement the meals on the day.

 Desserts:

• Saved Apple & Peach Stew with Vanilla Sweetened Bread Crumbs – by Michael Klausen from Brasserie Bread and Heilala Vanilla
  • Frank Petulla and his team at Profruit donated 1 tonne of apples that were destined for landfill – so of course apple-something would be on the menu. Frutex also generously donated peaches and the team at Brasserie Bread worked their magic and turned surplus bread into vanilla sweetened crumbs with a touch of donated Heilala Vanilla Bean paste… yum! Help by some fantastic volunteers from the UNSW and University of Sydney meant Think.Eat.Save goers would not be left without dessert. Cream was donated by the generous folk at Fonterra – expect to indulge in a very delicious dessert!

Beverage:

• Lemonade from Leftovers – by Coco’s Table & 42 Bannerman, Glenhaven – The excess lemons collected from the Olsson’s Orchard in the Southern Highlands, backyards lemon trees and local markets, will be used to make hundreds of litres of home-made lemonade. Volunteers led by Carol will turn these landfill-destined lemons into a delicious drink for all to enjoy.

EVENT ACTIVITIES

• Pop-Up Garden of Goodness by Sarah Brill from grow.eat.enjoy & ONE80TC
  • Sticking to the theme of ‘rescued stuff’, Sarah Brill, our gardening green-thumbed genius has created a pop-up city-garden with the help of one of our favourite charities – ONE80TC.
  • They have rescued pots, plants and pallets to turn the city into a green garden space and you can plant some meals to help feed someone in need.
  • A Tree of Goodness was also created by Sophia Kaplan using rescued branches and citrus fruit.

• Harvest Hub – Meet the Grower
  • Make a donation by buying fresh fruit and veg directly from the Harvest Hub Growers Market. Harvest Hub have been supporting OzHarvest through donating their surplus every day and we love them! Meet a local Sydney-Basin grower and find out more about where YOUR food comes from.

• Virgin Mobile #mealforameal Snappable Feast

• • Everyone loves to take a good photo of the food that they’re eating. Research shows that 7/10 Aussies admit to taking photos of their food – and posting it online for all to see!!
  • Virgin Mobile want to make that behaviour better and, together with OzHarvest, are embarking on a new campaign called #mealforameal. Every time someone snaps a photo of their food, posts it to social media and tags it #mealforameal, Virgin Mobile will donate to OzHarvest to put a real meal on the table for someone in need. Through this world-first initiative, Virgin Mobile aims to donate more than 400,000 meals to Australians in need.
  • At the VMA Food Photography Hub, dishes can be “prettied” up – then SNAPPED. TAGGED #mealforameal. Virgin Mobile will donate to OzHarvest for every hashtag posted onto social media to help FEED someone in need.

• OzHarvest Soul Shop
  • Help OzHarvest fight waste and reduce hunger buy purchasing gifts with soul including the OzHarvest Cookbook, teatowels, bowls and mugs and other goodies.
  • Every $1 raised means OzHarvest can deliver 2 meals to people in need.
  • Find one of our volunteers and sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date!

• Closed Loop “CLO’ey” Machine – The Ultimate Food Composter
  • Any excess food on the day – not that we anticipate there will be much of it – will be turned into top quality compost by the ultimate food composter – Closed Loop. OzHarvest will use the compost for our own Good+Harvest Community Garden at our new OzHarvest HQ warehouse space in Alexandria, generously donated by Goodman.

• Youth Food Movement – Love your Wonky Fruit and Veg
  • These young guns from Youth Food Movement will be running an interactive activity for participants to learn more about food standardization that cause increasing amount of food waste due to aesthetic specifications around fruit and vegetables. Get some hot tips on how to reduce food waste at home and embrace wonky fruit and veg!

• Make your PLEDGE to reduce food waste!
  • A funky yellow photo backdrop will be present on the day for guests to take their photo, make a pledge and tag it on social media – and commit to reducing food waste. These are the hashtags to be used #thinkeatsave #savefood @OzHarvest

• AskU – Testing your food knowledge
  • AskU volunteers wearing blue T-shirts, quizzing the public on how much they know about food waste and also how much food is wasted at home. This data will help OzHarvest change behavior in the long term, to get Aussies to reduce food waste. To take the quiz yourself, simply search and download the AskU App into your smart phone, and type into the Private Code: thinkeatsave Have a go!

• THINK.EAT.SAVE Panel Discussion – 
• A number of experts and leaders on the issues that matter: Food waste, food sustainability, food security
  • Ronni Kahn, CEO & Founder OzHarvest
  • Joost Bakker, sustainable genius by Joost
  • Costa Georgiadis, TV personality and gardening guru
  • Associate Professor Bill Pritchard, University of Sydney
  • James Viles, Chef at Biota Dining
  • Alexandra Iljadica, Co-Founder Youth Food Movement
  • Robert Pascoe, CEO Closed Loop
  • Joanna Savill, Fairfax Good Food Month Director

THINK.EAT.SAVE PARTNER LIST

And the biggest thank you goes to OzHarvest’s CEO & Founder, Ronni Kahn, OzHarvest staff and all the amazing OzHarvest volunteers involved in this project!!